The Students' Guide to Ebook Readers and Online Book Buying

Digital textbooks and ebook readers are an ideal way to get some weight off your back, and some cash back in your pocket. If you're stuck on traditional textbooks, we've got the best places to buy them too.

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The easiest place to buy textbooks is usually your school’s bookstore. Unfortunately, however, they know that, and it’s typically the most expensive place to buy your textbooks. If you’re willing to do a bit of online legwork, you can save yourself a lot of money this semester.

Big-Box Bookstores More and more big bookstores are getting into selling textbooks, and they’re often the cheapest place to do it. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s all have large textbook sections, and they all offer great extras for students, like free shipping or studying software.

CafeScribeCafeScribe’s main offering isn’t any different from its competition, but once you buy your book it offers a more powerful solution than most. The CafeScribe Reader is a Web app that’s available online or off, and is a useful way to take and share notes and bookmarks; if you do a lot of group work, this might be the solution for you, like having a Google Docs built right around your textbooks.

CampusBookRentals In its test, Campus Grotto found CampusBookRentals to be the cheapest place to rent textbooks, and that seems to be the case. They offer free shipping, boast the “largest selection in the nation," and have a ton of books to rent and buy no matter what class you’re taking.

Cengage Brain As buying textbooks goes, Cengage Brain has just about every base covered. You can buy or rent books, get physical books or ebooks, and Cengage Brain even has an app for iOS and Android, as well as offline support via HTML5. You can even print up to 10 pages of an ebook at a time, if you really need a physical copy.

CheggChegg’s primary business is textbook selling and renting, but there’s a lot more here as well. You can get information about your college’s courses (as long as your school is supported), get homework help, and there's even a Groupon-style daily deals program for some schools. Primarily, though, Chegg is about renting physical and digital textbooks, and it’s regarded as one of the best companies doing so. Heck, they even plant a tree every time you place an order.

CourseSmart Like Cengage Brain, CourseSmart is an all-purpose retailer for ebooks. You can read books in your browser, or on your iOS or Android device; you can rent or buy ebook textbooks (but not physical textbooks); and there are plenty of other materials for students, in addition to just textbooks.

Textbooks.com The nice thing about Textbooks.com is that it has the biggest selection of textbooks to rent or buy, both digital and physical, according to Campus Grotto’s study. The really nice thing is that Textbooks.com will price-match Amazon, so you don’t need to spend a ton of time hunting for the best deals; if Textbooks.com has the book, it’s likely to be as good a deal as you’re going to find. There’s not a lot in the way of apps or extras, but for buying and renting books it’s an excellent option.

David Pierce is a junior analyst on the PCMag consumer electronics reviews team. He’s a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, and got his journalistic experience (and a tech itch) working with David Pogue at the New York Times and interning at Wired. When not writing and editing, you’ll find David either playing Ultimate Frisbee, extolling the virtues of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee (it''s way better than Starbucks), or avoiding doing his laundry. And probably tweeting about it allhe’s @piercedavid....
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